He's the timer, keeping pristine records from the meets. He titled it "OTR Rhinos Time Progression."

Coach Ludo is the one who shows the Rhinos how to streamline – that's keeping the arms long and straight and fast underwater. He tells them to keep their heads down.

He doesn't say much. When he does, it's either cracking a joke – the kids love it when he purposely calls them the wrong name – or dishing out punishment for those not listening to Coach Emma or Coach Jane, 10 push-ups at a time.

...

It's the third day of practice, and Elsa McEwan knows how to swim.

She's 6, almost 7. She's thought about this day her whole life.

Just three days ago, she didn't think she would ever learn how to swim. Now, she can, and she feels a lot better.

Elsa can now make what Coach Emma calls "white water" when she kicks her feet just so. She can float and flip and turn.

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Elsa McEwan and Layla Porter learn how to kick during the first swim practice of the Over-the-Rhine Rhinos. The team held practices five days a week. Most of the team members did not know how to swim on the first day.(Photo: Meg Vogel/The Enquirer)

She makes bubbles underwater when she "bobs" – that's when the little kids' team goes down and up in the shallow end.

When she lets go of the wall, Elsa thinks about how she can do it. What it's going to be like on the other side.

This is the day she learns to be confident, too, she says.

She doesn't want to keep this to herself. She wants to share. I want to give this all away, she says. I want other people to know how to do it.

...

The Rhinos line up on the wall on June 8, the ninth day of practice.

That's how the drill starts, sitting on the side of the pool. Next, they will leap, flip and float.

We are going to take turns, Coach Jane says. Who wants to start?

All the arms raise.

"Only one of you can go first," she says.

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Coach Ludo Corsini tries to get the attention of the Rhinos during a practice. In the foreground, Mosaiah Epps holds onto Coach Emma Vansteenkiste's neck. (Photo: Meg Vogel/The Enquirer)

...

It's 11 a.m. on June 15, and that means practice is done for the day at Ziegler Park.

A boy shivers, wrapped in a towel that hits the concrete. He stands under an umbrella at the coach's table.

He is a younger brother of a Rhino, still too young to join the team.

Without a word, Coach Ludo picks the boy up. He places him in the sun for more warmth.

...

Deaarion Glenn's right arm grips onto the lane divider.

The other pulls underwater. His feet kick. His head leans back.

The 9-year-old is not moving forward. He is also not stopping.

He has been in the Pleasant Ridge pool for about two minutes. This is his first race at the first meet, and he is the only one left in a lane.

This is the 50-meter freestyle race, so one lap, back and forth. Deaarion, on his way back, is maybe 20 meters from the wall.

There, five of his teammates crowd the timekeeper seated at the end of the lane.

They clap, they yell, they shake their fists, they jump. Occasionally, a few words surface above the bedlam: "Go" and "Deaarion."

This is the Rhinos' first swim meet. This is week three. And this is the moment they become a team, even though they don't have their swimsuits and swim caps yet.

The pool was part of a $32 million renovation of Ziegler Park, a 4.5-acre space between Over-the-Rhine and Pendleton. It opened in 2017. This summer marked the first year for the pool's swim team. The Enquirer/Meg Vogel

Elsa McEwan and Layla Porter learn how to kick during the first swim practice of the Over-the-Rhine Rhinos. The team held practices five days a week. Most of the team members did not know how to swim on the first day. Meg Vogel/The Enquirer

Aria Groomes hesitates before jumping off the diving board at Ziegler Park. Coach Emma Vansteenkiste waits below. The swim team organizers aimed for the program to help the children feel safe, strong and confident in the water. The Enquirer/Meg Vogel

Ariana Davis floats in the water during practice on June 8. If the team members attended practice, they were able to visit the pool for free. Most of the participants were previously not members. Meg Vogel/The Enquirer

Coach Jane Spooner assists Jayden Davis in the water. Spooner recently moved to the area. She will run into some of her Rhinos when she in the neighborhood. "They are so accepting," she said. "They have so much love to give." The Enquirer/Meg Vogel

Coach Jane Spooner noted that the swimmers "bonded on a level I never expected." "One of my favorite things about watching the kids have been watching the friendships blossom," she said. The Enquirer/Meg Vogel

Coach Ludo Corsini helps Kamarly Johnson during warmups. A record-holding swimmer, Corsini remembers his first practices as a boy in Milan, Italy, and holding on to his swim instructor in the pool. The Enquirer/Meg Vogel

Kamilah Johnson stretches during warmups before a practice. The group wears swim caps featuring a logo design from Cincy Shirts, a company located just blocks away from Ziegler Park. The Enquirer/Meg Vogel

Members of the Rhinos try to make an "R" out of their bodies on the concrete at the Ziegler Park pool. This is before their final meet. The coaches decided to not participate in the league finals, but instead do a friendly competition between themselves. Meg Vogel/The Enquirer

The Rhinos mascot, shown on the cap, is special. Sure, it sounds like "Over-the-Rhine," but these animals are often misunderstood. A lot of people don't think rhinos can swim, but certain species can. Meg Vogel/The Enquirer

Izzy McEwan takes a closer look at his ribbon at the end of the year party. Every participant received a gift of their goggles and swim cap, as well as ribbons. The coaches wanted everyone to win a ribbon so they would be encourage to return to the team next summer.
The Enquirer/Meg Vogel

They are fearless in the pool. They are fearless outside of it, full of love and not afraid to share it.

Deaarion's face is still above the water. He sees them and he knows this is all for him.

His right arm releases its grip.

He is moving forward.

The timer is now about 2:30 minutes when he stops once more, the right arm hooking onto the divider. He is 10 meters, maybe five of his doggy paddles, from the finish.

The Rhinos clap, they yell, they shake their fists, they jump. Coach Jane crouches down toward the water.

Deaarion releases his grip. Three big strokes and he now clings to the wall.

The stopwatch reads 3:29.06.

His tears are indistinguishable from the pool water. His breath is heavy.

He still clings to the wall when the applause ends.

...

"All swimmers must leave the pool area if they are not swimming," says a voice through speakers at the Pleasant Ridge pool. "The judges are having a hard time seeing the races."

It's a message meant for the Rhinos, a half dozen or so of whom who are right next to the pool, screaming and clapping as soon as a Rhino jumps in.

That's apparently against the rules.

"I didn't know there were even judges," Coach Jane says, just as Jack Bethune and the rest of the cheering squad, all dressed in black Cincy Shirts Rhinos tees, move one step behind the yellow line.

Jack isn't swimming at all this meet. He's not quite ready to swim yet.

He's shy about swimming anyway, he says.

He's shy about a lot of things. Jack, who's 7-and-a-half, brought a book to read today – "Trouble River" by Betsy Byars – but he doesn't end up opening it.

Because he and teammate Mosaiah Epps either play iPhone games together against the nearby fence or he's right here, cheering.

For Jack, cheering looks like silently shaking his clenched fists. It might just seem like silence because he is quieter than his teammates. He's a creek next to an ocean.

He calls this shyness, too. It is really gentleness. Jack just hasn't learned that yet.

Another Rhino steps to the edge of the line.

Jack raises his fists in the air.

...

The Rhinos are jumping off the diving board at the end of practice on July 6. Or, at least, they are standing on the end of the plank.

This is the deep end.

This is scary and different. The water is darker here and farther – like four feet–away.

Four feet, after all, is as big as most of these Rhinos. The team bags that hold their swimsuits, caps and goggles are bigger than many of their bodies.

Coach Emma is as close as she can be, just a few feet away, treading water below the board.

"You can hold onto me," she assures them. "I can hold on to you."

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Aria Groomes hesitates before jumping off the diving board at Ziegler Park. Coach Emma Vansteenkiste waits below. The swim team organizers aimed for the program to help the children feel safe, strong and confident in the water.(Photo: The Enquirer/Meg Vogel)

...

Jack's body shakes on the end of the board. He's been standing there for about a minute.

"Go, Jack, Go" makes him feel less lonely, he says later. It's harder for him to be shy when he doesn't feel alone.

He sees himself jumping in his mind. He imagines himself in the air.

His body shakes as his feet leave the plank.

...

It's a Friday, so this is Ben Yisrael's favorite day in the pool.

It is a day they play freeze tag in the water, and any day the Rhinos do that is the 10-year-old's favorite day.

The coaches call it Fun Friday.

Ben is here all the other days. Pretty much every day, actually.

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Myla McKinney and Ben Yisrael take a break during a Rhinos practice. (Photo: The Enquirer/Meg Vogel)

He breakdances by himself and is always losing his goggles.

He cut his hair to look like Bart Simpson. He speaks without raising his hand and he speaks a lot – he has opinions about "Minecraft" and "Star Wars" and pretty much anything on YouTube right now.

And when he's done talking, he writes essays about it all, he says.

Ben's brain is full, and it is busy. He worries about his mom listening to him and whether his handwriting will improve.

And he only worries when he's not swimming.

Then, he thinks about nothing. His busy brain stills, slows down, just as his body moves.

He calls it a "detox."

...

It's minutes before the Rhinos host their first home meet July 18. So, just enough time to have a dance party, it seems, to the Jason Derulo song playing on the speaker system at Ziegler Park.

"One more minute of crazy dancing," Coach Ludo says as he walks past the frenzied circle, just as a few kids collapse into their giggles on the concrete.

"You've got to save some energy."

The crazy dancing continues for another seven minutes and 14 seconds.

...

It's now 9 a.m. July 28.

The rest of the team's league in the Cincinnati Recreation Commission is at the city finals today.

The coaches decided the Rhinos should do their own meet instead.

Each team can only enter two swimmers in each age group and each event. The Rhinos have too many swimmers in too few categories to participate.

So, they came up with the 2018 Rhino Championship instead, with the 30 swimmers divided into two teams.

The coaches want everyone to swim and everyone to get a ribbon.

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Mosaiah Epps gets help putting his swim cap on. The coaches spent a lot of time helping the kids get used to the equipment. (Photo: The Enquirer/Meg Vogel)

They want them to be back next year.

But this morning, one thing is most wanted: Mosaiah Epps to swim a lap.

Mosaiah, 6, is at most practices, but he's never competed in a meet.

He is loud, but he always puts his fingers in his ears when the other kids cheer loudly.

He tries to push coaches into the pool, but when he's in the water, he wraps his arms around Coach Emma's neck.

Mosaiah tries to run everywhere, and when he does swim, he's just thinking about ice cream, he says.

Right now, he stands at the edge of the pool.

"You can do it," Coach Emma tells him. He's moved closer to the lane, but he's still saying he isn't going to swim. "You've done it before."

Mosaiah's crying as his feet dangle in the pool. Coach Jane stands in the lane in front of him.

"You can do this," she says. "Push off the wall. I'm right here."

He lowers his body into the pool.

...

Derrick Thomas, 8, stands at the lane again. His teammates are lined up for an individual medley.

He loves the backstroke. That's what he does in the relay. It's his own version of it.

Yes, he is on his back. But he doesn't move his arms, just kicks. Derrick moves at an angle until he hits the lane line.

His smile faces the sky.

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Jayden Davis stands on the edge of the pool.(Photo: Meg Vogel/The Enquirer)

This morning, at the last meet, Derrick wants to do it all in the individual medley, all the four styles.

He doesn't say out loud what he wants. He stands. He waits. He smiles.

Coach Ludo notices. He always does.

"Do you want to swim this?" he asks.

Derrick nods.

"Get in," Coach Ludo says.

...

She followed directions every day, Coach Emma says. She worked so hard. She improved so much.

That's why Elsa won the Coach's Award Aug. 1 at the team's party. The final hours of the final day.

And then Deaarion earns Most Improved. He cut more than two minutes from his first meet time of over three minutes. He learned to start swimming and not stop.

It's Derrick who wins the Non-stop Swimming Award.

Jack gets the Conquering Fears Award.

There is one more award "for someone who we think was exemplifying everything that we want swimming to be," Coach Jane says.

We could always hear his voice, above all the rest, cheering on his teammates. Some days, he arrived at the pool before the coaches.

He was scared, but he finally swam a lap Saturday.

The coaches named it the Rhino Award, and it belongs to Mosaiah.

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Mosaiah Epps swims with the help of a noodle during a July practice. "I love their love for learning and swimming and how much they've grown," Coach Emma Vansteenkiste said. (Photo: The Enquirer/Meg Vogel)

...

The Rhinos stand along the side of the pool.

This will be the last moment of the season. They are ending just as they began.